SMARTY is a low-cost mobile network, owned by Three, offering money back every month for your unused data.

In the UK, SMARTY is a low-cost mobile network, offering SIM-only deals with coverage from Three. The network offers a choice of four data discount plans along with an unlimited data plan.

Most customers of SMARTY will choose one of the four data discount plans: Extra Small (1GB of data for £6.25/month), Small (2GB of data for £7.50), Medium (4GB for £10) or Large (8GB for £15). The plans come with unlimited calls and unlimited texts included, as well as a discount of £1.25 per GB for unused data. Customers wanting unlimited data can choose the £25 unlimited plan.

In this article, we’ll review the SMARTY mobile network, starting with their line-up of 5 SIM-only plans. We’ll then compare SMARTY’s deals to rival mobile networks like giffgaff, before looking at the level of coverage you can expect and how to keep your existing phone number.

If you choose one of the four data discount plans, the tariff is structured in such a way that you’ll pay a base fee of £5/month for unlimited calls and unlimited texts. On top of this, you’ll then pay a flat rate of £1.25 per gigabyte of data regardless of which plan you choose.

If you choose the unlimited data plan, you’ll pay £25 per month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data. There are no additional charges for using too much data, but at the same time there are also no discounts available for unused data.

There’s no need to undergo a credit check on SMARTY, as the plans work on a pre-paid basis. You’ll pay for your plan in advance using a registered credit card or debit card, with the top-up being converted automatically into a one-month plan.

Unused Data Discount

One of SMARTY’s unique features is the “unused data discount”. This gives you a cash discount on the following month’s plan based on data that remains unused at the end of your current month’s plan. This discount is offered at a rate of £1.25 per gigabyte, and means you’ll pay the exact same amount regardless of which plan you choose.

For instance, taking an example customer that uses 1.6GB of data per month, the actual price paid will always be £7/month. This is regardless of which plan you choose:

On the Extra Small plan (1GB @ £6.25), you’d have to add a cash top-up to your account. You could then pay for an additional 0.6GB of data at £1.25 per gigabyte (costing 75p). The total cost for 1.6GB of data would therefore be £7 (£6.25 plus the additional 75p).

Because of how this pricing structure works, it can often be advantageous to choose the largest plan. This is especially the case if you’re not sure how much data you need every month. Because of the unused data discount, you’ll only ever pay for what you actually use (but you’ll have more flexibility on how much data you can use on the larger plans).

The unused data discount is calculated based on the number of megabytes you have remaining unused at the end of the month (1MB = 0.001GB). This means you’ll receive a discount for the exact amount of data you have left unused, rather than only in gigabyte increments.

The unused data discount is only available on the Extra-Small, Small, Medium and Large data discount plans. If you’re on the unlimited data plan, you won’t be eligible to receive a data discount.

As of February 2019, SMARTY says their customers have earned data discounts totalling £813,792.

Pay As You Go Rates

All of SMARTY’s plans include unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and an allowance of data that can be used in the UK and when travelling in Europe. The inclusive minutes can be used for calling UK landlines and mobiles (that’s most phone numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03 and 07).

For everything else that’s not included in your allowance, you’ll need to top-up your SMARTY account with a cash add-on. This can then be used to pay for your out-of-allowance usage:

3p/minute access charge
+ service charge from the company you’re calling

Messaging Rates:

Text Message (SMS)

Included with base plan

Picture Message (MMS)

Included with base plan

Internet Rates:

Mobile Internet

£1.25/GB

It’s not possible to use SMARTY on a purely Pay As You Go basis. You’ll need to maintain an active plan at all times for you to be able to make and receive phone calls.

Comparison to Alternatives

Extra Small Plan

SMARTY’s entry-level Extra Small price plan costs £6.25 per month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. This is a fairly competitive price plan for light mobile users, with very few other mobile networks offering a similar allowance at this price point:

Small Plan

SMARTY’s £7.50 Small plan also compares fairly favourably to rival mobile networks. For a payment of just £7.50 per month, you’ll get unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of internet.

On rival mobile networks like giffgaff, you can get a fairly similar offering but without the inclusion of unlimited minutes and the unused data discount. For instance, giffgaff has a £8 goodybag with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of data (giffgaff’s coverage comes from O2 rather than Three).

Medium Plan

SMARTY’s £10 Medium plan comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 4GB of internet. Other mobile networks may sometimes offer more data at this price point, but it can vary depending on time-limited promotions.

The following table shows comparable SIM-only deals at the £10 per month price point:

Large Plan

At this price point, it’s often possible to get better deals on other mobile networks, but this may require you to sign up to a 12-month contract. The unused data discount is also exclusive to SMARTY, and isn’t available on plans from other networks.

One notable alternative is giffgaff’s £15 goodybag (also available on a 30-day rolling basis). For £15 per month, giffgaff will give you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 8GB of internet. Once you’ve been a customer of giffgaff for 3 months, an extra 1GB will be added to your allowance each month. This will give you a 9GB monthly allowance.

Unlimited Plan

SMARTY is one of four UK mobile networks to offer an unlimited data plan. The following table shows how SMARTY’s £25 unlimited plan compares against rival offerings from giffgaff, Three and Virgin Mobile:

If you’re buying a new unlocked smartphone, there are a number of retailers where you can easily buy a SIM-free smartphone. Our current recommendation for a mid-range and affordably priced handset is the Moto G which is available from around £120 unlocked.

Network & Coverage

3G & 4G Coverage from Three

SMARTY offers 99.8% population coverage on 4G.

SMARTY is a low-cost sub-brand of Three. As Three provides all of the underlying coverage for SMARTY, customers will receive the exact same coverage as they would on Three.

At the time of writing, SMARTY offers 98.3% population coverage on 3G and 99.8% population coverage on 4G. You can check the coverage in your area by entering your postcode on SMARTY’s online coverage map:

Like Three, and like all other mobile networks using coverage from Three, SMARTY doesn’t provide any 2G coverage. This means a SMARTY SIM card will not work in a 2G-only handset. You may also have limited functionality when using a SMARTY SIM card in some dual-SIM smartphones.

Tethering

Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with other devices (e.g. with a laptop or tablet). It’s useful for getting a mobile broadband connection on other devices whilst you’re on-the-go: for instance, sending e-mails from your laptop or watching YouTube videos on your tablet.

SMARTY allows the use of both tethering and portable hotspot. This is confirmed in the SMARTY help centre:

You’re entitled to use your data however you like, no matter which of the 3 SMARTY plans you’re on. So you can tether and use your phone as a mobile hotspot with your full allowance if you want to.
The only exception to this is the Unlimited plan and if you’re roaming, where you’ll be limited to 19GB.

Between September 2017 and July 2018, international roaming was not available to customers on SMARTY. If you joined SMARTY prior to July 2018, you’ll need to make a change to your mobile phone settings to use your SIM card abroad.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’d like to keep your existing phone number when moving to SMARTY, it’s a straightforward process to transfer it from your old mobile network.

To do so, start off by ordering a SIM card from SMARTY. It will come with a temporary phone number, allowing you to test out the service before moving your phone number over.

Once you’ve done this, you should request a PAC Code from your old mobile network. This should be provided to you free of charge within 2 hours of your request.

When your SMARTY SIM card arrives in the post, and once you’ve had a chance to make sure everything’s working correctly, you should provide your PAC Code to SMARTY through your online account dashboard. SMARTY will then schedule the transfer of your phone number, normally within 2 working days.

Hi Ros,
Thanks for your comment. The good news is that SMARTY includes Jersey-based numbers as part of your normal UK calling allowance (see their help docs here). Therefore, there are no extra fees for this 🙂
Hope this helps,
Ken

John Merrettsaid:

I have a Kuma 4G Pocket Wi Fi Kit, and a Smarty data only sim. I want to use it in France. Smarty say that I have to input new settings to make it work. Kuma say that a VPN will resolve all issues. I have no idea how to add a VPN to the Kuma setup, and no means of changing the settings on the Smarty card. Any suggestions, please?

Hi John,
Thanks for your comment. I think SMARTY are probably referring to the Access Point Name (APN) settings. As long as you have the latest settings from that page, your SMARTY SIM card should work abroad without any issues. There is no need to set up a VPN.
Hope this helps,
Ken

shah786said:

Hi there,
Yes, you’ll need to pay the £5/month service charge regardless of whether you actually use the SIM card. The £5/month charge gives you unlimited calls & texts (and pays for the running of the network, according to SMARTY).
Ken

Derrick Longstaffsaid:

I’m looking at the unlimited plan £25 per month plan, usage will be mostly abroad (Cyprus)
Question…..
A) can the sim be used in a mi-fi modem.
B) Is there a cap on the amount of internet data useage when abroad.
Many thanks
Del

Hi Derrick,
Thanks for your comment. To answer your questions:
a) Yes, it’s possible to use your SMARTY SIM card in a Mi-Fi router. This is confirmed here on the SMARTY website.
b) There’s a fair usage limit of 19GB per month when travelling abroad in Europe. If the balance of your time is spent abroad outside the UK, SMARTY may also decide to start charging for your usage.
Ken

Hi Rosemary,
Thanks for your comment. This is really odd – can you tell me what you mean by the tablet recognising the SIM card, but saying No SIM detected? A SMARTY SIM card should work absolutely fine in a tablet, assuming it is unlocked for use any network.
Ken

Rebeccasaid:

Does anyone know offhand if you’d be able to put an unlimited SIM from Smarty in a Mifi/Homefi and use it that way in replacement of home broadband, or would it be against their terms and blocked? I’ve tried looking through their T&Cs but couldn’t find anything about that specifically.

I was planning on getting Three’s unlimited Homefi, but the fact I wouldn’t be tied into a contract for 2 years is very attractive even though it would be a little more expensive, if it’s possible.

Rebeccareplied:

Nevermind, found it right there on their site in black and white: “Our SIMs also work with tablets and mobile broadband devices like dongles and WiFi routers. Simply choose your plan, pop your SMARTY SIM in, and you’re good to go.”

It says “You’re entitled to use your data however you like, no matter which of the SMARTY plans you’re on, so you can tether and use your phone as a mobile hot spot with your full allowance if you want to.
The only exception to this is the Unlimited plan and if you’re roaming, where you’ll be limited to 19GB”

Katesaid:

Hi, I’m looking to purchase the £10 sim for my son. I would like to know once he has used all the data included in this package would he have no mobile data and physically have to buy more data or is it just added on automatically if he tries to use extra mobile data? I’m trying to work out if it’s capped or not? I wouldn’t want him using extra data with or without knowing and then being left with a much bigger bill than £10. Many thanks

Hi Kate,
Many thanks for your comment. You’ll be glad to know that SMARTY is a pre-paid product, so all of your usage is capped by default. If you need additional data, you’ll need to top-up your SIM card with a “cash add-on” which can then be used to pay for data at the rate of £1.25/GB. No risk of accidentally using too much data and then getting an unexpected bill 🙂
Ken

Debra Albinsonsaid:

Hi Debra,
Thanks for your comment. Technically, SMARTY works on a pre-paid basis with you just paying for 30 days usage each time. Therefore, there’s no need for you to give any notice – you can simply stop using the service when your bundle comes to an end.
Hope this helps,
Ken

Ashley Hsaid:

What an utter rubbish network.
It either works out of the box or you are stuck with rubbish customer service – there is no way to actually talk to a person when this network fails.

Not only is there nobody to talk to but the rubbish ‘chat’ ceases at 8. Though in fairness if you are ‘chatting’ to people who know nothing during the day I think you can reasonably assume they would be equally useless in the evening so I guess it wouldn’t serve a purpose.

I ported to this rubbish network a few days ago and it worked for a day. Now does not work in iPhone and customer services are useless. Just get fobbed off with assurances the matter has been escalated. Well I need a network to use – I can’t use ‘assurances.

There’s often a reason things are cheap – and this MVNO is a prime example of that.
There’s no commitment as such but leaving won’t get me the deal I left for SMARTY and this rubbish service (or non service) has already cost me money to set up which won’t port across.
Nice little scam then really.

Gavinsaid:

Switched to Smarty from Vodaphone as they are miles cheaper. So far it’s been really good with no signal problems and pretty fast 4G data.

And as you get money off your bill each month for any data you don’t use if you switch off mobile data and don’t use it you basically get a phone with unlimited calls and texts for only £5 per month! Bargain!

Richardsaid:

This looks pretty good to me . Soon to be leaving TalkTalk broadband with unlimited calls and free sim for Vodafone Broadband with no calls package-so the unlimited minutes with this is a big hook for me . Add in that I use very little data , sometimes none in a month (maybe because I trained myself because I only had 500mbs) -free WiFi is everywhere – I would expect to be getting the discount every month , but it’s nice to know the data is there if I need it. Let’s face it , it’s £4-5 for a basic sim with minimal minutes and texts , 250ish ,eg my ‘free’ TalkTalk sim (500mbs/300mins/unlimited texts) is valued at £5 , plus I was paying £5 for my call package , so I am already in front if I choose the small package , though as you suggest I might go for the large offer . My only small gripe is I wish they would discount on smaller amounts of data – 500mbs perhaps.

Richardreplied:

Reading the comments below it looks like I have misunderstood the unused data discount- I thought it meant only whole GBs would be discounted, whereas it looks like it’s applied to mbs – wahey, even better !👍

Marilynsaid:

Hi Marilyn,
I believe you’re only able to purchase it from the UK. If you’re visiting the UK and want to top up with an Australian credit card, I’d recommend reading my article here. In short, it’s likely that giffgaff will be a better option for you as they allow you to use non-UK credit cards, and also provide low-cost international calling.
Hope this helps,
Ken

Petesaid:

Hi Ken – Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere but, if the separate allocation of £5 for service,calls and texts is ignored, the £15 large plan would appear to be the best value. On the assumption that any purchase is used in full, the cost per GB equates to £3.75 for Small, £2.50 for Medium and £1.88 for Large. These figures would of course vary if any discounts are taken or extra purchases made. After all, all providers include calls and texts in plans (albeit not always unlimited), so any mention of the £5 charge can be ignored.

Hi Pete,
Many thanks for your comment. I’m not sure it really makes sense to ignore the £5 allocation for unlimited calls and unlimited texts. The reason being that customers on any Smarty plan can use additional data outside of their allowance at the rate of the £1.25/GB (this is essentially the opposite of an “unused data discount”, where you pay a little bit more for data used over your base allowance). Therefore, someone on the 4GB plan costing £10/month could buy another 4GB by paying £5 (therefore taking them back up to £15 for 8GB of data). The result of this is the overall amount you pay only depends on how much data you use, and not on which of the three plans you choose.
Saying that, it’s certainly the case that as you use more data on your plan, the overall impact of the £5/month allocation becomes a lot smaller relative to the cost of your data. For instance, if you were to use 100GB per month, you’d pay £130 for this (£1.30 per GB under your calculation above). If you were to use 1000GB per month, you’d pay £1255 (£1.255 per GB under your calculation above) and so on 🙂
Ken

Petereplied:

Hi Ken thank you for your reply and point taken. However, I think that someone intending to purchase, for example, just one Small plan a month for £7.50 could mislead him/herself into thinking they are paying just £1.25 per GB for the 2 GB they receive whereas they are in fact paying £3.75 per GB with calls,texts and admin included (as with any other provider). That said, £3.75 per GB for a small plan is still good value compared with,say, GiffGaff where £7.50 will purchase just 1 GB. I do of course agree that any top ups would improve the value for money.

Hi Pete,
That absolutely makes sense 🙂 I’m probably one of those people who rarely use minutes & texts these days, so your calculation is probably also more applicable to me.
One interesting aspect of the mobile market is that people’s data usage doesn’t always increase with the size of their allowance (especially so when it gets beyond a certain point). That’s partly one reason we now see lots of deals on the market offering 20GB of data, 50GB of data or even 100GB of data (often at the £20 to £30 price point). Many people pick these tariffs are they have really good “per gigabyte” rates, though of course, they never actually use them and then end up paying more overall!
Ken

Nikki Maliasaid:

Hi Nikki,
I believe the plans at Smarty are essentially “capped” (technically, it’s a Pay As You Go service and as such, you’ll need to buy a “cash add-on” for out-of-bundle usage). For this reason, it shouldn’t be possible to get an unexpected large bill – all that could happen is you’d use up the cash add-on balance.
Hope this helps,
Ken

Graeme Hreplied:

I asked the question to their customer support and they said they are working on it now, but because of the technical deploy it’s not quick (hence why they launched without). Apparently, they don’t use Three’s systems, only their network infrastructure.

All in all very quick response and so far can’t complain at all. Discount at the end of the month is always welcome 😉

aayushsaid:

I would strongly recommend avoiding this network. They have zero customer service in the weekends, and take ages to rectify anything. I recently ordered, received and attempted to reactivate a replacement sim. The website didn’t work and I requested aid with this. They activated my original simcard, and started my billing. To top it off, they didn’t tell me this had occured, and I ALSO DO NOT HAVE THE ORIGINAL SIMCARD. I am in the opinion that Smarty is a scam. Strongly avoid.

Paul Dreplied:

I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience with them. I joined Smarty as a customer a few days after they started trading and can assure you that they are not a scam. Their customer service is online 8 am to 8 pm seven days a week, I’ve only had to use it once, but can tell you the service was fast prompt and efficient.

Hi David,
Thanks a lot for the feedback on the Smarty! I think Three have decided to set this up as a separate brand so they don’t cannibalise the revenues on their core brand. It also targets a slightly different demographic and has a different level of service (e.g. you won’t have access to in-store or telephone support with Smarty and also features like international roaming and Wuntu are missing on this tariff). It’s a similar strategy to what O2 has done with giffgaff, though obviously much earlier days for Smarty!
Ken

Troy Cooperreplied:

Yes, this is pretty much correct. From my contact with them, I have understood that they are owned by Three, but still act as a standalone company with their own budget, strategies and so on (Quoted from support – “We are owned by Three but we operate separately from them with different brand strategies etc” and “We had to make our company from the ground up with Three’s UK network as our backbone”). This is a great network, especially for youth, but it does have its flaws. The biggest one for me is Roaming. I believe their main issue is that they cannot use Three’s roaming infrastructure, and are still working out their own deals with International Partners. There is no time-scale, but I was given an educated guess of 6 months, bringing us to April 2018. However, this is a guess and no guarantee. I was told you can email team@smarty.co.uk for updates.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this operator, especially for the youth down to their buy-back-data scheme and good value plans.
Hope this helped someone 🙂

Hi Troy,
Thanks for the feedback and update, especially around international roaming on Smarty. It’s interesting that they aren’t able to leverage Three’s roaming infrastructure – now you mention it, there are also a number of other Three MVNOs that lack roaming (e.g. FreedomPop, ROK Mobile, Tello, etc) so this makes a lot of sense. I had never previously put this down to Three’s network limitations (I guess iD Mobile & TPO Mobile, two other MVNOs on Three, have negotiated their own roaming partner agreements).
Thanks again!
Ken

Aayushsaid:

Just so you know. The plans have been released for Smarty. There is a plan for 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. The nice thing is, if you use 8GB on a 2GB plan, it will cost the same as an 8GB plan, so almost no worries about excessive overage charges. Which is fine by me 😂.

The discount rate is £1.25 per gigabyte, so I’d pay £5.60 if I used only 480mb. And for that much, unlimited calls and unlimited text for that much, it’s a cracker for lower users as well, as long as you use the discount. Absolutely changing to it. Will need to keep the O2 sim for roaming though 😬

Davidsaid:

Andrewsaid:

Q. What happens if you try to transfer a number (via a pac code) between providers that use the same network, e.g. Three to Smarty, Three to idmobile, plusnet (ee) to bt (ee) etc, etc?
Is it possible or do source and destination networks have to be different?

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Your e-mail address will never be published. By default, I'll use it to send you an update when there are replies to your comment. However, if you don't want to receive this, you can disable it using the dropdown menu below:

Connect With Us

About Ken

My passion is helping people to get the most out of their mobile phone. I've been blogging at Ken's Tech Tips since 2005.

Aside from writing about mobile technology, I have an interest in software development, digital marketing and physics. Outside of the blog, I work with numerous technology companies helping them to market their product to consumers. Find out more.